


know that you're already home

by theoddpocalypse



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Clones, Fix-It, Gay Keith (Voltron), M/M, POV Lance (Voltron), S7 Fix-It
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-13
Updated: 2018-08-13
Packaged: 2019-06-27 00:23:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15674280
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theoddpocalypse/pseuds/theoddpocalypse
Summary: Lance knows there's something wrong with Keith, he just isn't sure what. He just knows he's tired of being treated like he's lesser, when in the past Keith had grown to treat him like an equal. While trying to figure out what is going on with ex-rival, he and others come to find that maybe the Keith that they've been with recently isn't who he says he is at all.





	know that you're already home

**Author's Note:**

> This is basically just a short s7 fix-it based on the Keith is a clone theory. The summary makes it seem like it's way more than it is honestly. I don't know, I'm moderately happy with it. More happy with it than I am with the show at least.

There was definitely something wrong with Keith.

Ever since he’d returned with his mom and his cosmic wolf and an altean, he’d been colder, stricter. Just… not very Keith.

Lance liked to think he knew Keith well. Almost as well as Shiro. Before he’d gone and joined the Blades, they’d gotten so close. Lance had been excited for him to be back, at least until the reality of it all set in.

Something had happened while Keith was gone and Lance just felt… even more lost than before. He felt even more ostracized. Sure, Keith would put him in charge at points on their way back to Earth. He still trusted him with some things. But past that, it was like they weren’t even friends. Just teammates.

And it sucked. Lance already felt he was so far from Hunk and Pidge. It hurt infinitely to realize he’d lost Keith too. 

Sure, Allura was blushing at him now. But that was… confusing too. Lance couldn’t help but feel a little bit of whiplash with that whole situation. He couldn’t understand what he’d done to suddenly change her opinion of him, and now that it had, he couldn’t help but feel a little weird. Yeah, maybe a year prior he would’ve been jumping for joy, but being a rebound to a psychopath was not the way he wanted things to go.  

Why was life so confusing?

In the aftermath of the big fight, Lance really just wanted answers. Spending time with his family helped get his mind off of things, but when he was alone his brain was in overdrive.

He decided he needed to talk to Keith. 

Lance asked around for him and finally found him outside of the Garrison, talking with Shiro, Pidge, and Hunk by the Black Lion. He ignored the jealousy that Keith could talk with everyone else so easily but still couldn’t seem to come to Lance like he used to.

Pushing down that feeling, Lance walked up to the small group, all of them looking up as he approached. Keith was the first to look away, but the others all looked back and forth between the two.

“Hey guys,” Lance said , rocking back on his heels for a moment. “What’s going on?”

“We were just uh, discussing the battle,” Pidge responded. Lance nodded.

“Cool cool. Atlas was pretty thicc, am I right?” While the others made some noise indicating their amusement, Keith looked back up at him, his face completely devoid of emotion. 

“Was there something you needed, Lance?” he asked. Lance felt his heart start to race. It was now or never.

“Yeah, um, I was wondering if I could to you. Privately.” Before Keith could even respond, Shiro ushered Pidge and Hunk away. 

“Shiro! I want to see what happens!” Lance heard Pidge whisper. He tried to ignore it. 

“What do you want, Lance?” Keith asked. He was back to not looking at him, his arms crossed over his chest defensively. Completely closed off.

“I just….” Lance sighed. “I just want to know what’s been going on between us. Since you got back from being on a space whale, things have been completely different between us. You have to admit you’ve been kind of an asshole, man.”

“Lance, I don’t know if you noticed, but we just saved Earth from the Galra, there hasn’t been-“

“There we go again, undermining me. Everyone has been doing that lately. You know, I’m pretty sick of everyone thinking I don’t know what’s going on. I’m not stupid.” Lance growled. “Before you left for the Blade, we seriously bonded, but now it’s like we’re back to square one. No, not even square one, more like square zero. It’s like we’re not even rivals, it’s worse. And I want to know why. I really want to know why suddenly it’s like you are a completely different person.”

“Well, two years alone with just your mom and a space wolf will do that to a person. I can’t just be a carefree teenager, Lance. I’m the leader now.”

“Yeah well before you were the leader  _ and _ my friend. I missed you. When you were gone it was like a part of me was missing. I felt so isolated from everyone. And it seemed like when you left was when everyone started treating me differently, started treating me worse. Then you came back and you were treating me just as badly and I just want my friend back.” Lance squeezed his eyes shut tight, trying to fight the tears he felt brewing. “I doubt we could ever get back to the more, because I know I’m not crazy about that, but that’s fine. Friends is better than whatever the quiznack we’ve become.”

Lance opened his eyes. Keith was pointedly looking down. He could see the scowl on his face. It just made Lance angrier.

“Will you look at me, Keith? Or is this new you incapable of even that?” he snapped. Keith looked up from under his bangs.

“Lance, I don’t know what you thought we were, but I can assure you that it was all in your head.”

“Are you serious?” Lance seethed, his hands balling into fists. “You really expect me to believe that, Keith? That I made it all up in my dumb head?” 

“Yes.”

Lance was shaking. He felt like if he didn’t walk away from Keith he was going to do something stupid, like punch his stupid attractive face in. He opened his mouth to say his final words on the matter, when he heard a chorus of gasps behind him.

“WHAT IS THAT?” It was Hunk screaming. Lance looked back at them, seeing his friends all pointing up to the sky. Lance turned and noticed that Keith was looking up as well. Lance turned his eyes to the sky to see a ship was barrelling through the atmosphere, clearly completely out of control.

It took him back to the night so long ago, when they saw Shiro’s ship crash into the Earth’s surface. 

They all watched, unmoving, as the ship crashed, the ground shaking with the impact. There was a moment of complete lack of activity, before they were all taking off, running towards the crash site.

Lance and Keith made it there first, as they had been slightly closer. They pushed through the smoke and moved aside debri to get to the cockpit. Before they could attempt to help, the door opened by itself. 

It was like a slow motion moment, as the pilot stepped through the smoke and revealed themselves… to be Keith, clad in Galra prisoner garb. 

“What the cheese….” Lance breathed, his eyes having gone comically wide.

“ _ Lance _ !” The new Keith cried, having seen him first. “Quiznack, am I glad to see you!” And then this new Keith was hugging him. Lance had no idea what was happening.

“I… what?”

“Who are you?” The other Keith’s voice cracked as he shouted, clearly in shock. 

The new Keith looked up. Anger instantly overtook him. Everyone was just staring, gaping at the fact that there were two Keiths. Then again, with everything that happened, Lance was a little surprised he wasn’t entirely used to this shit by now.

“Guys, that’s not me,” new Keith said. 

“Wait what?!” Pidge snapped. “What is going on?”

“I don’t remember exactly what happened. It was when they had us all seperated on that Galra prison ship, I know that much. Except I didn’t get out. Someone else did. He did,” the new Keith said, pointing at the other Keith.

“That’s ridiculous! I’m Keith!”

“But… how can we know that for sure?” Hunk asked nervously. 

“What do you mean how can we know?!” The other Keith whipped out his Marmora blade and activated it. “Would I be able to do that if I wasn’t me? Would I be able to pilot Black if I wasn’t me?”

“My clone was able to pilot the Black Lion,” Shiro said. Everyone turned to look at him. “The clone… he thought he was me. And there was enough of me in him that the Black Lion trusted him. If there was enough of the real Keith….” They all looked back up at the two Keiths. 

“I am real!” Keith snapped. Lance stared at him. 

“You’ve treated me so bad… how am I supposed to believe that?” he breathed, flexing his hand so that his bayard would appear. New Keith looked at Lance and then at the other Keith.

“He has been meaner. Similar to how Shiro’s clone would just snap,” Hunk commented. 

“They’re right Keith, you have been completely different,” Pidge added. 

“Why? Because I’m not uselessly pining over Lance anymore? Because I’m just trying to be a good leader? Because I’m thinking about the future instead of being stuck in the past?”

“A leader doesn’t put down their teammates. Our Keith wouldn’t have tried to abandon us while we were floating aimlessly in space.  _ My _ Keith wouldn’t have questioned my sharpshooter skills,” Lance said, pulling up his blaster.

“It was a joke, Lance! That’s what we do, we joke!” 

“Your tone didn’t make it sound like a joke.”

Other Keith sneered, realizing that they’d all surrounded him. There was a brief moment of pause on his end, almost like a system shut down. But after a moment it was instantaneous the way his eyes changed, his pupils changing to bright purple, the same way Kuron’s had when Haggar had taken full control. 

He put his hand down to summon his bayard, but the new, well,  _ real _ Keith beat him to the punch. The sword materialized and smacked clone Keith against his back with the side of the blade, sending him falling to the ground. Shiro was quick to restrain him, being the strongest one of the group, and Lance grabbed Keith’s Marmoran blade from him. 

“Should we just like, take him out?” Pidge asked. 

“No. We should keep him. See what information we can get from him before figuring out how to dispose of him,” Shiro said. The clone was thrashing, trying to fight against Shiro’s hold. He seemed to shut down again, before looking back up at them, eyes normal and pleading with them. 

“Shiro, please. I’m your brother, don’t do this,” he said, his voice cracking. The real Keith glared. After everything Shiro had been through, he didn’t need this shit on top of it.

“Pidge, wanna do the honors?”

Pidge smirked and summoned her bayard, pressing it to the clone’s side and shocking him. The clone shrieked and crumpled in on himself, clearing having blacked out from the voltage. Shiro hauled him up.

“We need to get him back to the Garrison and secure before he wakes,” he said, motioning for them all to follow him. 

“We’ll catch up in a minute,” the real Keith said, gripping Lance’s uniform to keep him back. Shiro nodded to them before marching off with Hunk and Pidge in tow. Lance watched them go before turning to Keith, holding out the blade. 

“I think this belongs to you,” he said. Keith smiled a little, taking it.

“Thanks.”

“How can I be so sure you’re actually the real you? If one clone exists, who’s to say there isn’t more?”

Keith bit his lip for a second. “I… I don’t know. I guess you just have to shut up and trust me?”

Lance laughed. “Well, I already trust you.” They smiled softly at each other. Keith reached out to grip Lance’s wrist, sliding his fingers down to press their hands together. Lance took the initiative and laced their fingers. 

“I’m sorry for anything that happened while I was gone. I was scared I wasn’t ever going to make it back to you… um, I mean, here. Home. Earth,” Keith breathed, blushing. “And I don’t know what he said or did, but you know that I- that we- Lance, I don’t-”

“Keith, calm down.” Lance touched Keith’s face with his free hand. “You don’t have to explain yourself. You’re here. You’re home.” Keith stared up into Lance’s eyes. He reached up to grip the back of Lance’s neck, gently pressing their foreheads together. There was a lot to take care of. A lot to discuss. But that could wait. They both needed this moment.

“Yeah,” Keith whispered. Lance could feel his breath against his lips. “I’m home.”

**Author's Note:**

> Follow me on [tumblr](http://theoddpocalypse.tumblr.com/) or [twitter](https://twitter.com/theoddpocalypse) if you want to see a lot of Klance because that's all I care about anymore.


End file.
